Flight attendant nabbed in cocaine caper
LOS ANGELES — A JetBlue flight attendant who authorities say left behind 32 kilograms of cocaine worth up to $3.9 million Cdn after flinging off her heels and running from security at Los Angeles International Airport was arrested Wednesday in New York.
Marsha Gay Reynolds surrendered to federal authorities at John F. Kennedy International Airport, though it wasn’t immediately clear how she reached New York, federal officials said.
Reynolds was expected to be in federal court in Brooklyn today, according to U.S. Attorney’s spokesman Thom Mrozek.
Transportation Security Administration officials asked a woman to step aside for a random security screening Friday, authorities said. The woman went to a secondary screening area but quickly dropped her bag, ditched a pair of Gucci heels and fled barefoot downward on an upward-moving escalator, Marshall McClain, president of the union representing LAX airport police officers, said Monday.
Reynolds was charged with cocaine possession with intent to distribute. It was unclear if she yet had an attorney.
Mrozek said prosecutors believe reports that Reynolds was a runner-up in Miss Jamaica World 2008.
The incident happened on Friday, when a woman arrived at an LAX checkpoint wearing jeans, heels and a black suit jacket, carrying her “known crew member badge,” according to an FBI affidavit in support of the charge against Reynolds. It wasn’t immediately clear whether she was on duty at the time.
When the woman was chosen for a random security screening, TSA Officer Jamie Samuel said the woman became nervous and began looking around before pulling out her cellphone and making a call, according to the affidavit.
Samuel reported that the woman was talking on the phone in a foreign language as she was being taken to a secondary screening area, the affidavit said.
Once in the secondary screening area, TSA Officer Charles James asked for her identification.
At this time, the woman “dropped her carry-on luggage, removed her shoes and began to run away,” according to the affidavit.
James saw the woman run down an upward-moving escalator and out of the terminal, the affidavit said, adding that the officer didn’t pursue her because her abandoned luggage was his main concern.
LAX police soon after found 11 packages of cocaine wrapped in green cellophane and labelled, “BIG Ranch” inside one of the bags the woman had left behind, the affidavit says. Wholesale, the drugs would be worth nearly $1 million Cdn in Los Angeles, said Special Agent Timothy Massino, a spokesman for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Security threats from “insiders,” including airline and airport employees and workers hired by contractors, have been a focus of the TSA, particularly after the December 2014 arrest of several Delta Air Lines baggage handlers. Prosecutors allege they smuggled guns, including an AK-47, from Atlanta to New York.
The TSA has said that full screening of all employees would cost too much. Instead, the agency has urged airports to increase random screenings of workers and to keep background checks up to date. “We will pay particular attention to the insider threat,” TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger told a Senate committee this month.